The safety and feasibility of Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic technology in splenectomy

Abstract Background laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) has been reported as a safe, minimally invasive surgery. The hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy (HALS) approach overcomes the drawbacks of LS with added advantages. We aimed to compare the safety and feasibility of HALS and LS.Method We retrospectively collected patients who underwent HALS or LS from January 2019 to December 2022 at the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Ganzhou People’s Hospital, Nanchang University. Demographic characteristics and perioperative variables related to HALS or LS were collected, and the clinical outcomes were compared between the two groups.Results Between January 2019 to December 2022, 62 patients who underwent HALS (n = 35) and LS (n = 27) were collected in this study. There were no conversions to open surgery in the HALS group during surgery. HALS showed significantly better results with respect to shorter operative time (P < 0.001), postoperative hospital stay (P < 0.001), faster food intake (P = 0.04), and less estimated blood loss (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of overall complication. Ninety-day mortality was not observed among the patients.Conclusion This study showed that hand-assisted laparoscopic splenectomy is safe, feasible, and effective. It deserves to be widely accepted, especially in emergency surgery for splenic rupture.